Child of Order
by Forever Kissing
Summary: Ashera was defeated. The world rejoiced. And then a few years later Rolf found a baby on his porch. The baby is wonderful but for some reason she's always acting strange. Is there something more to her than meets the eye? Shinon x Rolf Post Radiant Dawn


Years had passed since the Goddess of Order had been defeated by the great Lord Ike. After that the Greil Mercenaries split into pieces, unfortunately. Oscar returned to the Crimian Knights. Boyd and Mist were married, and while they continued their mercenary work for a while, eventually they started a family, and had to give up a life of danger. Titania, Mia, and Rhys continued as best they could, with the help of Gatrie from time to time… but they rarely took jobs. They better invested their time in rebuilding the continent.

Rolf continued to learn from Shinon, but eventually began to tutor students himself. He moved into a small cottage in the middle of a forest, where he taught his students archery. Shinon visited frequently to shoot targets with his old apprentice.

Rolf was usually very calm on days when his master visited. He didn't have students those days, and he usually just read until Shinon arrived. The day it all began was a different day, however.

…

Rolf looked up from the pages of the tome he was reading. He could hardly understand the writing, all in the ancient tongue, but he was convinced he could teach himself to read it if he tried hard enough. However, his train of thought was interrupted by a slight rapping at the door. He wasn't even sure if it was meant to be a knock at first. The noise was almost like something just brushing against the door, and he wondered if maybe it was Shinon.

He stood up from his seat and started towards the door with a purpose. His hand gripped the cool knob and he hesitated for a moment. Shinon never waited outside. He always barged in like he owned the place, and began his search for Rolf.

After that moment's hesitation, however, Rolf found the courage to open the door. He was after all, twenty years of age. He opened the wooden barrier and faced the mystery.

It was nothing? He blinked and looked from left to right. There was no one there. With a second gaze, he saw the form of a man approaching. He was sure that was Shinon, based on the sort of swagger in his walk. He was about to step forward, when he sensed he was about to trip. He looked down quickly, and a light gasp escaped his lips.

He reached down instantly, wrapping his hands around a bundle wrapped in a black blanket. He moved back the fabric to reveal a pair of large, wet eyes staring up at him. "A baby?" He whispered, admiring the child. It was a little girl, he guessed based on her features. Her hair was short, of course, she was just an infant—no more than three or four months old. It was curled at the ends, and the thin strands were an orangish red, just a little different than Shinon's own hair. He ran his finger down her soft cheek and her eyes widened at the warm touch. It was then that he noticed for the first time the curious color of her eyes. They were two colors! Her right eye was a peaceful blue, but her left eye was a fiery red.

"Where is your mama?" Rolf whispered to her, subconsciously bouncing her in his arms as he searched the area. All he saw was his master approaching. A brief realization hit Rolf as he stared down at the baby in his arms. Someone left her on his porch… She was an orphan now. What should he do?

"Whatcha got there, Rolf?"

The voice startled Rolf for a moment, and he visibly jumped even. He pulled the bundle closer to his chest, and looked up. He knew Shinon was approaching, however he still couldn't get over the wave of fear that rushed through him when the sniper approached. What would he think? Would he know what happened?

"Is that a baby?" Shinon asked quickly, but Rolf interrupted him before he could continue his train of thought.

"Did you see anyone on the path?" Rolf exclaimed, looking past his master. "Maybe her mother?"

"No." Shinon answered, "There wasn't a soul." He peaked past the blanket, and picked at the blanket with two of his fingers. "Geh. Babies are such a hassle." He paused for a few minutes, and then shrugged his shoulders. "So I guess we'll take her to an orphanage?"

Rolf's green eyes flew open and he stared at Shinon. "An orphanage?" He looked back down at the baby girl in his arms and then once more glanced at his mentor. "I don't… I don't know."

"…" Shinon stepped back and perched his hands on his hips before he rolled his eyes. "You can't think you're going to keep it. Rolf it isn't a dog, it's a person. I think. I've never seen a person with mismatched eyes before."

"Ranulf was bi-eyed." Rolf muttered under his breath. Shinon raised an eyebrow in response to that, and shook his head.

"Ranulf is a sub… A laguz."

Rolf sometimes thought it was funny, when Shinon caught himself being rude. Although he was still a jerk in the highest power, he did make an effort in front of Rolf to be nicer. After so many years of making the boy cry, it only seemed fair.

But now that they were both adults… it seemed silly to worry about Rolf crying. Rolf was twenty, Shinon was thirty three. Rolf hadn't cried over something the sniper had said in years.

In fact, Rolf found himself behaving a little bit like Shinon. He was never mean, of course, but he found that sarcasm did make up quite a bit of his vocabulary. He also was a little bit of a drinker—but he could never drink himself drunk. He hated the feeling of not being in control of himself.

Time had changed them both. Shinon was the same height, had the same style of hair and such… but he had lowered part of his shield of "mean". Rolf was taller than Shinon now, by about an inch or two. He had the same messy hair style, and he wore baggy sweaters to keep himself comfortable in the unpredictable climate of the cottage.

Once more Rolf focused his vision on the baby in front of him, who was remarkably quiet. She gazed up at him through her colorful eyes and remained silent.

"I've never seen a baby be so quiet." Shinon grumbled, eyeballing the way her hair curled. "You and Ike and Mist… You were all loud mouths."

"Stop poking her." Rolf grumbled, pulling her away from his master just a little bit. Shinon however reached down and wiggled his long fingers over her belly—something that used to elicit a giggle from the other children he had met. At her silence, Shinon shook his head.

"I think you broke her."

"She's not broken!" Rolf shouted, allowing his frustration to manifest itself into a yell. At the rise in his voice, however, the infant finally began to cry—her face wrinkled up like a prune and her cheeks turned red as she shrieked and sobbed.

"There you go." Shinon smirked a little bit and lowered his hand. "Now she's fixed."

Rolf blinked in surprise at the sudden cries and bit his lip. "What do I do?" He asked, looking up at Shinon. "Is she hungry?"

"Er…"

Rolf reached forward and shoved the squalling bundle into Shinon's arms. "I don't know what to do, Shinon! Make her stop crying!"

The scarlet haired sniper rolled his eyes and took the baby into his arms. He propped her on his shoulder and bounced her gently, starting up the path he had just spent so long coming down. "C'mon, Rolf."

"Sh-Shinon?" Rolf watched the other man's movements and began to follow him—taking large strides to catch up "Why did she stop crying?"

"You scared her when you yelled at me." Shinon grunted, pulling the blanket up over her head to keep her warm as he walked into the wind. "Idiot."

"Where are we going?"

"We're taking her to the orphanage!" Shinon answered, giving his student a look of distress. "Where they can take care of her, and feed her, and change her diapers, and raise her up to be a mediocre woman who works in a bakery or something. You know. Happy."

Rolf shook his head "Wait! I don't want to take her to an orphanage!"

Shinon stopped in his tracks. "Really? Rolf, you think you're going to raise her?"

"…" Rolf looked away for a minute, and then nodded his head.

"Don't be stupid, Rolf. You're young, you're not married, you don't know how to raise a baby, and you live in the middle of nowhere. What if she got really sick? Are you just going to teleport to a doctor?" Shinon watched as Rolf pulled the girl back into his arms, and then dropped his own arms in response.

"Besides, you never know if something's wrong with her. Look at her! She's like… perfectly still. I'm telling you, normal babies don't act like that. She's probably sick." He rested his hands on his hips again and continued down the trail.

Rolf blinked at him. "I just told you, I'm not taking her to an orphanage!" He caught up with Shinon once more, and began to speak again. "I'm going to keep her! Maybe she was left here for a reason? Maybe Yune had something to do with it! What if it's some sort of gift?"

"That stuff doesn't happen in real life, Rolf." Shinon muttered in response. "Keep up, will ya? Your legs are longer than mine, why don't you take bigger steps?"

"Sh-shinon! I'm going to keep her! Why are we going to town?"

The sniper grumbled and turned around to face Rolf once more, then stared into his bright green eyes. "Rolf. Seriously. Look at me."

Rolf fell silent for a moment.

"Do I have ears on my head?"

"…Yes, sir."

"Do you think they work?"

"…" Rolf nodded. "Mmhmm."

"Thank you. Don't insult my intelligence. I heard you say you want to keep her. Fine. But you still need to go to town to buy her clothes, and diapers, and food, and I'm sure she likes to drink milk—the rest of the world besides you generally likes it."

Rolf was surprised, admittedly, to hear Shinon say that. He really wasn't going to push the issue of Rolf wanting to keep the baby?

"But seriously. Ask for advice or something because babies are hard work. They cry, and they poop, and they throw up, and they're absolutely useless. Then they grow up and follow you around crying even more because they want your attention."

Rolf smiled a little bit, knowing that Shinon was referencing him. "Well," Rolf began, "Can't you give me advice?"

Shinon laughed loudly at that, and turned around to walk the path again. "Do I look like a father to you?"

"B-but! Shinon, when you were a teenager you helped raise me and Ike and Mist!" Rolf ran ahead and finally fell into step with his teacher. "So you must know some stuff!"

"Right, okay." Shinon admitted, "I know how to take care of a baby. But see, your biggest problem is that I don't live here, bright eyes. I won't be here to teach you everything every day, and I'm just telling you that babies need to be taken care of more than twice a week."

Rolf smiled. "You could… stay with me!"

Shinon almost spat. "No thank you, Rolf." As they began approaching the village he smirked. "I get enough of your nonsense on the days that I visit—I can't put up with that every day."

Rolf thought about pouting, but shook his head. "Fine! Well then when you come up don't be surprised if I can't shoot with you anymore! I'll be so busy—and I'll have to hire a nanny or something to watch her while I teach my students…"

"So what?" Shinon shoved his hands into his pockets and looked back over his shoulder at Rolf. "Are you threatening me?"

"I just… don't know how I'll ever have time for you anymore." Rolf cradled the girl a little closer and then grinned. "I'll be so distracted by little…er… well when I think of a name for her I'll tell you."

"I'm not afraid of your empty threats Rolf. If you left me alone for once it would be a pleasure, not a punishment."

"But… what if I fell in love with the baby's nanny?" Rolf offered up his next threat. "And she convinced me to stop seeing you altogether? To give up my ways as an archer and settle down?"

Shinon snickered. "So what?"

Rolf grunted. "Shouldn't that BOTHER you? Shouldn't you enjoy spending time with me?"

"I do enjoy spending time with you. In fact, you're the only person I enjoy spending time with at all." Shinon answered, "But I think I hate babies just enough that when having to choose between never speaking to you again and seeing you in addition to a baby, that it's a tough call."

Rolf was silenced by that and he looked into the eyes of the baby. Was it worth it? He had been so sure, just moments ago, that he wanted to keep the baby girl and to love her and raise her…

But would he really be able to give up on Shinon, in order to do that?

"Shinon… I…"

"Let me think about it." Shinon answered, turning right and in the direction of a general store. "Because it would really be a shame if you had to give up teaching in order to raise a baby that's not even yours. You are an exceptional marksman."

Rolf grinned from ear to ear, hearing that. "You mean you might really come live with me?"

"Not forever or anything! Just until it was old enough that you could leave it alone for a few hours a day."

"Thank you so much, Shinon!"

"I said I was thinking about it." Shinon answered back, looking once more through his narrow eyes at the infant. "Don't thank me for things I haven't done yet."

They walked in silence for a few moments, before Shinon looked back over his shoulder. "So… What are you going to name it, anyway?"

"Err…" Rolf shrugged. "I don't know. I think she's probably a gift, right? From a Goddess. So she should be named something cool, like a Goddess name."

"She's not a gift from a goddess, Rolf. She's a gift from a woman who didn't want to take care of a baby who doesn't act right."

"So probably Astrid." Rolf went on, ignore Shinon for once. "Because wasn't Astrid a goddess of strength or something? She's super cool."

"You're such an idiot." Shinon chuckled. "A big stupid idiot."


End file.
